As a Marketer and someone who understands the social media space I continue to ensure that my clients truly understand what's acceptable behaviour in this space. I have read David Churbuck's post about Shooting fish: Blog Sluts and I think he has polarized the view of bloggers. For many of my clients trying to reach customers in this space and having to build credibility in that outreach will take time. Remember that they are driving their business as well and don't have the luxury of "time". Sometimes, the reach effort involves tapping into existing influencers with established networks to help accelerate their efforts. Please keep in mind that the bloggers/influencers that we outreach are not "paid" or forced to post content on behalf of a company who has requested some help. We ensure they have totally, on their own, buy into the strategy and direction presented to them and they can choose not to be a part of the initiative. I agree that there are bloggers out there who use their expansive network to take advantage of advertisers who want the reach. The content posts they initiate will not necessarily be authentic or even perceived as such and so their credibility will be taken into question the more they enter into these types of relationships. I truly believe that relationships with bloggers and advertisers can be just as strong as a friendship. Overtime, the conversation builds into trust and the efforts defined by each are indicative of that trust.